ILASA Kavi Sammelan at Sydney draws literature lovers

The Indian Literary and Arts Society of Sydney marked Hindi Diwas through a tribute to the poetry and romance in Bollywood.

As part of Hindi Diwas celebrations an evening of Hindi poetry and romance in Bollywoond films and Kavi Sammelan was held at Epping’s Leisure and Learning Centre by the Indian Literary and Arts Society of Australia (ILASA). The chief guests at the function were the Consul General Arun Goel, Bhartiya Vidya Bhawan’s Gambhir Watts, Hindu Council of Australia’s Prof. Nihal Agar, Hornsby Shire Councillor Gurdeep Singh, IABBV Hindi School coordinator Mala Mehta, Hindi Samaj President Nirupma Verma, AHIA President Sant Ram Bajaj, and the Indian Seniors Hornsby President Dave Passi.

Rekha Rajvanshi, head of the ILASA, introduced the poets. Rajvanshi is a poet with several published works, both her own poems as well as anthologies of Hindi poets and their poetry in Australia. The ILASA has been organizing regular Kavi Sammelan’s for around three years now and the organisation actively promotes Indian culture and literature, says Rajvanshi. The ILASA also has coordinators organizing events in several cities in Australia including Brisbane, Melbourne, Canberra, and Wollongong.

Altogether 16 poets participated in this Kavi-Sammelan. A young poet Gaurav Kapoor started Sammelan,Vimla Luthra, Nihal Agar, Dhanraj Chowdhuri, Jasbir Singh Ahluwalia, Riaz Shah, Garima Trivedi’s, Ritu Bhamra, Sukhpreet Dhamun, Sonu Sarda’s poems were enjoyed by all.

Pradeep Upadhyay and Swati Tiwari’s humorous poems enthralled the audience. Vijay Kumar Singh’s and Rajpal Sandhu’s poems were also appreciated.

Renowned singers Vinod Rajput team sang all time hit songs whereas the song performances by Reena Mehta, Lata Baraskar, Sunanda, Lalit Mehra and Arun Nanda took the audience to a musical journey.

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